A Love that Poisons the Heart with Darkness
by xmissMagentax
Summary: When Men tell stories, they have a Tendency to exaggerate... to make them more exciting- and to only see part of the big picture- so this is the real story- How miss Nellie Lovett saw, and lived it. (basically just a big Sweenett- I guess you could say it's sort of an alternate ending/not exactly AU- major plot points are the same w/ new twists and motives!...except the end!)


Ch.1 A Secret Place

Nellie sat in the parlor, curled up on the chaise with her favorite book, or at least it was her favorite of the moment, this changed a lot, but her current favorite was all she could talk about. Nellie loved books. They told the stories of romantic adventures of beautiful women and gallant men, and Nellie loved them. Romances were her favorite. When her family took their weekend trips to the country to visit her old aunt and her horrid children, Nellie's cousins, She would always slip off to the forest in the back of the property and act out her current favorite story. She would imagine she was the beautiful princess looking for her prince, sometimes her cousins would catch her at it, and would taunt her endlessly for it, but that never stopped her.

It was an ordinary evening, Nellie was, once again, curled up with a book, when the parlor door opened and Nellie saw her mother enter the room.

"Come quick Nellie! We have new neighbors!" Her mother said Beckoning to Nellie to follow her. She put down her book and followed her mother out to the enclosed area right outside the pie shop her mother owned and ran.

Perhaps it was all the books she read, or perhaps it was her romantic sensibilities but, Nellie figured that she knew love when she saw it, or felt it, even if she was only thirteen. As she joined her mother outside the pie shop Nellie felt as if she had been hit over the head of with a frying pan. There was a family standing there. Her father was helping the man carry baggage up to the rooms above them. Her mother was chatting animatedly with the woman, very pretty woman, with rich chocolate brown hair and kind eyes. But it wasn't her eyes Nellie was drawn to. Nellie was transfixed by their son. He was the most handsome boy Nellie had ever seen. And when he turned and looked at her timidly and smiled she knew that she loved him.

"Nellie, this is Mrs. Barker, and her son Benjamin." Said her mother. Nellie stepped forward.

"evening." She said with a little curtsy.

"evening." Said Benjamin with a little bow. "I hope that we can be friends."

"oh the best of friends, to be sure!" said Nellie, trying to act as normal as she could while feeling like she might explode at any moment. He smiled at her and she felt like she might melt right there in front of everyone. Over the next few weeks Nellie became a master of hiding her true emotions. She saw Benjamin nearly every day and they became as close as two friends ever were. They spent hours together each day, the pair of them were nearly inseparable.

One night , nearly eight months later, Nellie, as was her usual routine, was curled up in bed with a book, it was very late, nearly three, if she had counted the chiming of the clock correctly. She stretched and yawned nearly falling asleep with her book in her hands, she decided she was too sleepy to read anymore and resolved to go to sleep. She marked her place in the book and reached up to turn out the gas light on the bedside table. Not moments after she had she heard the faintest knocking on her door.

"Nellie? Nellie? Are you still awake?" She knew Benjamin's voice instantly.

"What are you doing down here? She whispered back, yet secretly thrilled he had come to see her.

"I, I found something… let me in will you?" Nellie chuckled to herself and climbed out of bed to let him in. She opened the door and he snuck in quickly. He was holding a small candle to light his way. Though the candle gave off little light Nellie could see his face shining with excitement. "come on! I've got to show you!" He grabbed her arm and started to lead her out of the room.

"Ben, what on Earth are you talking about? Where are we going?" He merely shushed her and beckoned her to follow him, she did.

They crept up the back stairs in the hallway in past her parents' room and silently snuck past Benjamin's' parents' room. Until at the very end of the hall Benjamin stopped and pointed up. Nellie could just make out the thin outline of what looked like a small door in the ceiling. She looked back at Benjamin quizzically, but he was already busy undoing the lock. It made a faint crunching noise, and squeaked just a little, Nellie was sue their parents would hear. But there was no movement from the other end of the hall. The door swung open easily and Nellie could see beyond it the night sky dotted with stars. She made a small gasp at its beauty, at which Benjamin turned to her, grinning.

"I told you it was worth it! Come on!" he put one hand on either side of the door frame and hoisted himself up and out onto the roof. He looked back down at Nellie, who was grinning herself now and extended a hand to help her up. She took it and he pulled her up onto the roof beside him."Isn't this just perfect?" he asked looking over at Nellie. She nodded. They were stretched out on the roof side by side, and Nellie couldn't have thought of a better word for it than "perfect" "Nellie, this'll be our secret place. You and me, forever! Promise?" Nellie looked over at him and nodded vigorously.

"yes, our secret place. Forever."


End file.
